The info war over Iraq and Afghanistan is heating up. On one side, the mainstream media is publishing increasingly bleak headlines: Newsweek’s “Losing Afghanistan,” for instance. Also, Gannett’s military-audience newspapers, including Army Times, are calling for SecDef Donald Rumsfeld’s termination. On the other side, the military is cracking down on milbloggers, refusing embeds and firing off angry editorials — all in an effort to tell a consistent story of success in the so-called War on Terror.
The military’s latest move is this: a website solely dedicated to rebutting claims made by the mainstream media. Check it out. It’s a gas.
On the site, the Pentagon takes critics of the Iraqi Security Forces to task for their dour appraisals of the forces:
CLAIM: For two years, American sergeants, captains and majors training the Iraqis have told their bosses that Iraqi troops have no sense of national identity, are only in it for the money, dont show up for duty and cannot sustain themselves.
FACTS: Some 300,000 Iraqi Security Forces are risking their lives for their new country. Polls of Iraqis show consistent support among the populations for members of the Iraqi Security Forces. Iraqi forces are increasingly taking the lead in operations against the enemy.
Actually, both claims are (sorta) right. Iraqi forces have no sense of national identity. And they are increasingly capable — but only as local security forces. On several occasions I have visited Iraqi Army units that have flatly refused to deploy, or have been besieged in their deployed bases by hostile local residents. And even as Iraqi forces improve in a tactical sense, they remain dependent on coalition forces for logistics and most of their air support. That won’t change any time soon.
And don’t get me started on the Iraqi police — technically a security outfit and a mob that the Pentagon always includes in its censuses of Iraqi forces. These guys are actively evil, grossly incompetent and, in most towns, very nearly insurgents themselves. As for the Pentagon’s claim that security forces have “consistent support among the populations,” I call B.S. The average Iraqi is actually scared of his local police.
–David Axe
I have a couple questions about Rumsfield’s photo…
1. WHY THE HECK is is finger on the trigger!?
2. Why is he waving around a Browning Hi-Power?
I bet the Pentagon folks and Beretta are really happy to see this photo. Seems to me that if you aren’t going to support your department’s procurement of a bazillion Beretta 92s, and know enough to keep your bloody finger out of the trigger guard, you ought to at least have advisors that are allowed to tell you not to step in doo-doo. He apparently didn’t listen to them, either.
I have stayed out of the anti-Rummie fight, but this photo gives me pause to consider whether he is the right civilian leader for the Dept. of Defense.
I second Dave. Why in the name of our flying monkey king is Rummy-Tum-Tummy’s finger on the trigger on a Browning Grand Puissance? Nice gun safety, farktard.
@Dave:
I think it’s photoshopped
I’m no forensics expert but the picture is quite probably photoshopped, download it and open in a image viewer, zoom and have a look at the area between his neck and the gun, it has clearly been filled in with black. plus the middle finger has been cut.
M
Listen, you jokers, it’s Photoshopped, okay? Geez …
Good Morning David,
Ok it’s Photoshopped. My question is why is the pistol not pointed at his head?
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
OK, you got me fair and square!
I even pasted the photo into Photoshop last night and looked at it before I posted. I must have been tired. My usual rule on posting to blogs is that I delete my text once and if I really want to type it back in, I do.
I shoulda kept the safety on last night. Sorry for the hassle, David.
Dave
Congratulations. You have succeeded in making me make a fool of myself. I tip my hat to you. In all seriousness, thank you for pointing that out. I’m not a big fan of Rummy, and I’m proud to say it, but I refuse to take stabs when figures don’t deserve them. I believe in the lost concept of honor in politics. Looking back at the photo, it’s actually a pretty good photo-chop, so I tip my hat to the “artist” as well. Lumpy Away.
Hey wait minute! I clicked on the link — it all read like a Kremlin news release in Pravda. Whose running this country anyway?